Horse racing is back at Belmont Park. The historic New York track, home of the Belmont Stakes, reopened on Friday after three years closed for a $550 million reconstruction, welcoming an estimated sellout crowd of 6,000. The first race since July 2023 was won by Lisa Joy, a filly ridden by Antonio Fresu, who praised the new turf course as one of the best he'd ridden.
The rebuild is a striking break with the past. The old brick grandstand, standing since 1968, has been demolished and replaced with a modern, all-white facility. For now only the first two floors are open to the public; the upper levels are due to be finished by spring, in time for the Wood Memorial in early April — a key Kentucky Derby prep race.
The reopening matters well beyond one Friday afternoon. The Belmont Stakes returns to Elmont on June 5 after a three-year stint at Saratoga, and the Breeders' Cup comes back next autumn — the first time the sport's world championship weekend has been held in New York since 2005. Breeders' Cup chief racing officer Dora Delgado compared the new Belmont to Ascot in England, calling it state of the art.
There's plenty happening on track too. The headline race at the reopening meeting was the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, featuring Forever Young from Japan, ranked among the best horses in the world. Country star Dierks Bentley performed as part of the celebrations, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul used the ribbon-cutting to tout the state's rare double act: Belmont on the Queens–Long Island border plus the venerable Saratoga Race Course upstate.
For travellers, this turns a day at the races into a proper New York trip. Belmont sits right on the edge of Queens, so it pairs easily with a city break — you can do Manhattan sightseeing and still catch a race day without leaving the metro area. With the Stakes in June and the Breeders' Cup in autumn, the 2026 calendar gives racing fans two strong excuses to plan a visit. Just note that if you go before spring, the public areas are limited to the first two floors while the rest of the grandstand is finished off.